35: Turning Point

Plagg lost count of the petrified humans he gone passed through. Twenty? Thirty? Bottomline was they were all turned to stone. He took a quick scan at the vicinity trying to figure out Adrien's presence when he found the boy hiding under the bridge where André the ice cream man's gelato cart was left unmanned above.

He swooped down to the canal and dashed towards him as he called out while huffing and wheezing. (He bolted so much from the boat despite not having a good boost.)

"Kid!" He yelled.

Adrien's eyes darted towards the direction of the voice and his face brightened from the sight of his partner appearing before him. The poor cat was still catching his breath when he arrived.

"You're here!" Adrien beamed. "That was fast."

"Eh." Plagg shrugged. "We were just at the other end of the river at this boat and I sensed you were nearby."

His face contorted. "You were in a boat?"

"No time to explain!" Plagg waved the idea. "What's the situation so far?"

"Right." Adrien nodded. "Mummy man with a Pharoah's crown in loin cloth riding a throne above inverted pyramid, flying around, shooting bystanders turning them into statues."

"Yikes." Plagg complained, "That sounds worse than what I imagined."

"We have to keep it away from the crowd at the same time bring it to an open area where it cannot hide."

"Thus the Louvre open front." Plagg supplied.

Plagg fell silent for a few seconds taking a few glances at Adrien then clapping the boy's shoulder. "Alright. Got it."

"Great!"

"But first you have to listen to the plan." Plagg interrupted.

Adrien's eyes widened. "There's a plan?"

Plagg snorted. "Duh. You think she'll let you charge over there without a plan?"

"By s̲h̲e̲ you mean..." His voice trailed then he gasped. "How is she? Is she safe?"

Plagg teasingly raised an eyebrow. "Who? Marinette or Ladybug?"

Adrien scowled. "Ha, ha."

Plagg snickered. The cat was enjoying Adrien's predictable torn reaction.

"Back to the plan." Adrien demanded.

"Right!" He snapped.

Plagg began to explain how Wayzz assumes the new monster is Hawkmoth's power up creation. Without knowing if the monster was an akumatized victim or a sentimonster, Chat Noir's job was to distract it up until Ladybug's reinforcements will arrive.

"She wants me to stall it?" Adrien repeated.

"Exactly."

"How does she even plan on defeating it if she can't transform?"

Plagg frowned. "You just have to trust her Adrien. I'm sure she has a plan. For now, we have to do what we can before it destroys the city. Do you have an idea where it is now?"

Adrien didn't like the sound of that. There she goes again trying to deal with it all by herself without even consulting him. Then again, he also understood she doesn't have much of a choice.

He balled his fists, "Judging from the screams, Mummy-man is about a mile away from here."

"Good. Let's catch up. Ladybug will meet us at the Louvre."

Adrien nodded. He was about to call on the power of his miraculous when Plagg remembered something.

"What is it?" He said.

Plagg panicked, "She told me to tell you that if you do anything stupid, possibly anything that could get you in serious danger, she'll turn you into a Cat Piñata."

That image cracked Adrien up. He muffled a laugh, hugging his stomach, giggling for dear life. "That doesn't even make sense!"

"Hey," Plagg held up his paws, "Don't tell me I didn't warn ya!"

Adrien wiped a tear recovering from the laugh, "Duly noted my friend."

Plagg grinned. "Now let's kick some mummy butt!"

"Plagg, Claws Out!"

* * * * * * * * * * *

"Are you sure this is alright?" mumbled Luka as he followed Marinette to the staircase of her house.

"This is alright." She managed. "My parents are out, they won't find out."

Luka's mouth set on a hard line. He wasn't expecting the response, nor was he expecting to hear that in this situation.

Mari led him to the second floor where she led him up to another staircase leading to what he assumed was an attic.

"Your room?" He said as climbed behind her.

Marinette giggled. "What? Getting nervous Couffaine?"

He smirked. "Seriously, how are you building up this tension for me, Dupain-Cheng?"

She shrugged, "A talent."

Mari popped the lock off the ceiling door and hopped right up, pulling Luka to his feet. She ran to her desk as soon as the door was shut.

"Whoa." said Luka as he scanned the room.

"Yeah, pink isn't it?" She said as she fumbled at her drawer, lifting the miracle box out.

"I wasn't pertaining to that." He said.

When she turned around, Luka was running his fingers among the pinned sketches of clothing on the wall behind the mannequin.

A smile formed on her lips as the crinkle on the side of her eyes relaxed at the sight of the boy admiring her work.

"Those are still prototypes." She managed.

Luka glanced down to the mannequin that had an unfinished mandarin cuffed biker jacket with pins sticking out from the shoulder seams.

"This black jacket does not look your size." He noted.

Marinette walked towards it, touching the tip of the sleeve, "Yeah." Having the same heavy feeling she felt whenever that piece of clothing caught her eye, she let it go. "Come on," She prompted. "I'll show you what we came here for."

She guided him to her work table where the spheric ladybug printed treasure lay waiting for its master. With one touch of her hand, the box erupted into several compartments, like a flower blooming from a bud, revealing its most secured trinkets that hold the power to either save or destroy the world.

Luka restrained himself from commenting. He found himself gawping at every new thing he discovered about Marinette that he felt the need to stop himself from expressing amazement at the trick this girl just did.

"You should see your face." She gave him a lopsided grin.

Luka almost took a step back. "Hey, give me a break."

It was Marinette's first time seeing him pout. Not really the reaction she expected from THE Luka Couffaine, but the mouth-hung-open-stare was what she enjoyed.

From one of the box's hidden drawers, Mari picks up a sea green bracelet with a scaley reptile design which Luka recognized having used the said trinket from the past―the Ouroboros Bracelet.

She set it to her palm and turned to Luka, with the face she always wore as Ladybug whenever she requested for help from one of her friends.

"Luka Couffaine," She said in a soothing tone. "This is the Miraculous of the Snake. Which grants the power of Intuition. You'll use it for the greater good. Once the mission is over you'll return the Miraculous to me...can I trust you?"

He smiled which almost made Marinette melt to her socks. But she cleared her mind.

Luka received the bracelet and held it up. "I thought you'd never ask." He slips it on to his wrist and Sass the kwami materialized cartwheeling divine spirit version.

"Greetings my―oh..." Sass stumbled from his words when he noticed both holders were in civilian form. He glanced to Marinette alarmed of the untraditional manifestation. She understood the kwami's gaze. Being one of the more formal and leader type kwami, it was to be expected that Sass had high expectations whenever he was summoned.

"I'm sorry to have called you out especially in this manner, Sass," Mari managed, "However, we need your help to aid Chat Noir. I may not be able to turn into Ladybug for now, but I believe we can still do this."

Wayzz came flying in to Sass as if saying: It's alright dear friend.

Having seen Wayzz's judgement of the situation, Sass relented.

"What must be done?" Sass inquired which dissolved the heavy tension among them.

Marinette grinned, a hint of fire in her eyes. "We're going to catch the enemy off guard." She said raising a familiar pendant from the miracle box.

"An interesting choice considering the odd pairing you'll be gathering for the show." Sass mused.

"This'll be the first time I'm using this out in the open." She sighed.

At first she felt worried whether her decision would be right considering the risk their taking, but Luka clapped her shoulder saying "It'll be alright. I'm here." which brought back her confidence.

Marinette slipped the Miraculous to her neck as she and Luka exchanged determined looks.

"You ready?" She said.

He jutted his equipped wrist on the air. "As ever be."

Wayzz, embodying Master Fu's guidance, tapped each of their foreheads. "Goodluck heroes."

Together, the two of them called for the power of their Miraculous.